Beautiful In Every Universe

hi there but can you describe to what this is suppose to mean (In the RPG text, there was a method to make it easier to understand who's line by using "I", "I", "I" etc. for each character, but "There was a notational fluctuation, so I replaced it completely. There was something like "ta ~", long ago) - Kazushige Nojima. apparently people are taking Nojima's words here as saying the Eng localization and maybe the others as well for 7 remake as bad? is that really the case tho?

Yeah, I remember that. It's one of those moments I start to think that some people shouldn't comment on languages they don't know, and/or don't know how to navigate via translation/dictionaries—especially when this is combined with selfishly following their own agendas by skirting context. We know people do this. Happens all the time with source materials, or even epitexts like guidebooks or interviews. But, it's more annoying when it directly involves a writer's social media account within the drama. It's just really bad.

But let's contextualize.

Every now and then on his Twitter, when he isn't posting about his cute pets (lol), Nojima will post something related to video games/writing, and it'll also often be when you see a small part of the twitter FF7 ENG fanbase parading around his tweets with comments or likes. For instance, a tweet where he talked about leaving room for imagination and interpretation, or when talking about scenario writing. It's not necessarily a bad thing to have this interaction, though sometimes people will say weird things. You'll also find that his tweets like this usually get a good amount of attention as opposed to when he talks about his pets.

That's when we get to the tweet you're referring to, I'd reckon this being the most attention he's ever gotten for a personal tweet. Here's a decent translation, w/ some things added in w/ brackets for clarity:

RPGのテキストで、キャラごとに「ぼく」「僕」「ボク」などを使い分けることで誰の台詞か判りやすくする、なんて手法があったけど「表記ゆれがあったので僕に全置換しときました～」なんてのはわりとありました、昔。

In RPG texts, there was a technique of using different words for each character to make it easier to identify who is speaking, such as "I" [ぼく], "I" [僕], "I" [ボク], etc. However, a long time ago someone would say something like "there was inconsistency in the notation [orthographical variants], so I completely replaced them with I [僕]".

A couple of things.

At its core, this is just a comment about game development/writing. There is no "shade" (I really hate this immature perspective), there is no talk about localization. That was made up by people who don't know how to translate or navigate JPN text. What he's essentially talking about is: how there were different ways to write characters referring to themselves, but how in the past, this was averted and made consistently one way.

That's it.

As you can see, this absolutely has nothing to do with the Remake, and I would wager it also has nothing to do with the OG. This all hinges on the proposed reason for the technique—to make it easy to identify/understand whose dialogue is whose. For the Remake, this issue is nonexistent in today's age considering voice acting, and for the OG, the dialogue boxes identified who the speaker was anyway. Really, this also doesn't automatically apply to all localizations, especially ENG, because of the way the corresponding languages work. Especially in ENG, there's not a lot of natural variances for someone just saying "I" in writing. The closest thing is something more akin to an attribute to characterization (as opposed to clarification of who is speaking), like a character referring to themselves in third person instead of "I", a godly character saying "this one" when referring to themselves, or a character egregiously saying something like "me thinks". For characterization purposes, something close in the OG would be how the 5 bosses of Pagoda had different methods of speaking, which the ENG didn't follow suit apparently.

While an issue of "JPN did this but ENG didn't" does apply to, say, that situation with the 5 bosses: one, you still need to think of the context of how certain things don't directly work for every language, and two, even the example Nojima brings up doesn't exactly apply the same way the examples I mentioned or the 5 bosses do.

Which in this case, Nojima brings up the example of different ways to write what would be pronounced as "Boku" (I, me)—the hiragana ぼく, the kanji 僕, and the katakana ボク versions of the exact same word. They would be the "orthographical variants" [表記ゆれ]—and I was very tempted to translate it as the following meaning—which is simply referring to "words with the same pronunciation and meaning, but different written forms". I wrote "inconsistency in the notation" to signify how this was a situation where someone saw these orthographical variants (or fluctuations, as some translated) and wanted to change them to one, consistent thing. This....is really just a notation thing. Kana is for pronunciation + writing sake, all three of these aren't completely different words. This is different than the 5 bosses example, as the Lifestream user mentions 私 (watashi), ワシ (washi), オラ (ora), and わらわ (warawa)—those are actually all legitimately different words + pronunciations AND mean "I, me". Much more appropriate and often done in JPN fiction.

Nojima's example of 僕/ぼく/ボク ( all "Boku") is not the same, and honestly, it absolutely makes a lot of sense why someone would look at that and think....why? When the 5 bosses example would be the better approach instead imo.

Anyway, the problem with people who misunderstand this is that they're wanting to take this scenario and create a narrative that Nojima is mentioning this specific instance, that isn't even relevant for the Remake, as a means to talk bad about his fellow development team members and reference other "issues" in the Remake's localization. Hell, even look at the comments, which are all from JPN speakers, one of which is someone else who works at SE. None of which are talking about the Remake or all localizations (which literally....why would JPN speakers be doing this???)—just writing for games in general. I’m assuming this tweet gained such massive traction because of how most things ever do, but it isn’t some conspiracy in the making where he talks bad about his fellow employees.

And the funny thing is that, it absolutely can and does apply to the development for even just the JPN version, as this would happen even at the stages of which editing, proofreading, and programming these texts into the game—now, this CAN also apply at the stages of localization, but in addition to what otherwise is also for the JPN. Nojima could vary well be referring to something that happened when making the JPN version of a game long ago, NOT any of its localizations. That isn't made clear.

What is clear, however, is that Nojima isn't talking about Remake or even directly localization. This is just people reaching for their own twisted purposes, and as always, it's annoying. 

It’s just about pronunciation.

It’s just fandom being fandom. Insubordinate. And churlish.

˗ˏˋ 2月7日 HAPPY BIRTHDAY AERITH! ˎˊ˗

IT CLICKED

I GOT IT

Rufus sees the Whispers in Shinra HQ because he’s in the process of exterminating greater Avalanche.

This is why Rufus’s reaction to and relationship with the Whispers seems so odd. They’re helping him. And he doesn’t realize it. Rufus is the only character whose reaction to seeing the Whispers for the first time isn’t to try to fight them or run away – rather, he actually moves towards them and is so entranced by them that he’s still staring out the window long after they’re gone.

Let’s back up.

In Before Crisis (which appears to be canon-ish for the Remake, considering the reference to the assassination attempt on President Shinra and the greater organization of Avalanche as a whole), Rufus was Avalanche’s inside contact. He provided them with information on Shinra and funded their terrorist campaign.

In the Remake, Mayor Domino refers to himself as being Avalanche’s man on the inside, which initially made a bunch of Rufus fans (myself included) scratch their heads a bit. But when looking closer, it becomes pretty clear that Domino is working with Rufus to fund/assist Avalanche and undermine Papa Shinra’s administration.

However, also established in Before Crisis is the detail that Rufus never cared about Avalanche as an organization nor the fate of the planet itself. He was simply using them as pawns to murder and usurp his father.

As we can see from Rufus’s introduction, once Papa Shinra is dead, Rufus doesn’t need Avalanche anymore. He shoots down the Avalanche extraction chopper and steps onto the scene in order to personally declare face-to-face that the alliance is off.

So, the order of events is:

1. Rufus puts the call out to Avalanche HQ to storm Shinra HQ and flush out the president.

2. Rufus calls Domino and tells him to assist Avalanche once they get to the building so that they can remain unseen in their journey to the top floors.

3. Cloud, Barret, and Tifa coincidentally happen to show up first, unaware of the larger plot about to take place. Domino assists them on their ascent, assuming that they’re the ones to carry out the mission at hand.

4. Rufus calls Tseng and mobilizes the Turks. Reno and Rude go to pick up Rufus, who is likely planning on pulling the trigger on his father himself while Avalanche causes chaos and creates an opening to do so.

5. Aeris is rescued.

6. Larger Avalanche (along with Wedge) arrive on scene to carry out the assassination attempt.

7. Rufus arrives on scene and very smugly makes it a point to personally give the order to arrest who he believes to be Avalanche operatives who are only there in the first place by his orders. Boss fight occurs.

8. Meanwhile, Tseng is searching for President Shinra, unaware that he’s already dead at this time.

9. Cloud, Barret, Tifa, Aeris, and Red XIII make their escape from Shinra HQ.

10. The Whispers surround the Shinra tower.

11. Rufus enters the Executive Suite and sees the Whispers for the first time.

12. Tseng gets a call from someone (presumably Reno) and is pleased by what he hears. He tells Rufus that “The men are on standby.” To which Rufus responds, “Bring them in.”

13. Rufus gives Reno and Rude the order to exterminate every Avalanche operative still on site.

Now, I realize that 12 and 13 are a little bit vague, and you might be wondering how I arrived at number 13 at all.

The important thing to understand that the main narrative tool that FF7R utilizes is misdirection. Rufus’s line of “bring them in” is just one example of many. After he says this, the scene cuts back to Cloud & co. on the highway as Shinra soldiers are deployed after them, so the immediate assumption is that Rufus just gave the order to dispatch soldiers to detain the party. 

However, if this line was truly in reference to the pursuit of Cloud & co, then Tseng’s phone conversation no longer makes sense. We hear him say, “I see. Very good.” This reaction isn’t internally consistent with the idea that someone has just told him that the party has escaped.

More likely, Tseng was getting an update from Reno that the chopper has been parked and they’ve returned to HQ. “The men are on standby” – Reno and Rude are back and awaiting orders. Rufus then gives Tseng the order to have Reno and Rude come into the office. There, the order is given to take out Avalanche.  This also explains why Reno and Rude are missing from the final sequence in which Rufus takes the throne – they’re still likely out and about in the aftermath of the mass murder they just performed.

The Whispers are non-hostile to Rufus, and he seems completely distracted and mesmerized by them. He can see them, but they’re not impeding his progress in any way.

Avalanche HQ are not supposed to be at Shinra HQ. This is not how the original script/”destiny” plays out. So, by giving the order to hunt down and kill every Avalanche operative, he’s actually doing the bidding of destiny/The Whispers, even if he doesn’t realize it. He’s basically doing the Whispers’ job for them.

So when the order comes, the Whispers decide to help out and encircle the Shinra building in order to ensure that none of them escape.

Knowingly or not, the Whispers serve to establish the bounds of Rufus’s villainy and mercilessness. His inaugural speech about ruling the world through fear is no longer necessary, as he’s just turned Shinra HQ into a locked-down prison for the “heroic” team, in which he orders and orchestrates a bloodbath.

Pretty boy

okay I just had to back up a bit to verify it was you. How we feeling about Roche

My thoughts on Roche can be found summarized here

To not summarize them:

I love how stupidly consistent with the original he feels. I love Reno's comment in remake that all SOLDIERS are in fact, massive weirdos. I love how gay they let him be. I love that he quotes Romeo & Juliet. Except, in this universe, Loveless is the stand in for shakespeare and there's actually several shakespeare lines in the performance at the saucer. So there's like a 90% chance Roche was just quoting Loveless when he said that. I love that he put in the effort to hire a full brass band for his showdown in Junon. I love his stupid little keychain (yes I had it equipped for like half my playthrough)

Most of all I love that Cloud???? Weirdly respects him???? After their first duel, whenever Roche shows up, Cloud plays by the rules and tells all his allies to stand down so they can 1v1. He genuinely likes Roche and has this begrudging fondness for their random shonen rivalry. You don't see him giving Sephiroth any of that. Cloud has so many random people obsessed with him, and you know the only one he tolerates??? Roche. What the hell.

If we're talking about his final fight, let me just say: Ow.

  A E R I T H   G A I N S B O R O U G H

Beautiful ❤️